Future Retail's secured lenders vote against deal with Reliance

One-hundred percent of Future Consumer's secured creditors voted against the deal, while 77.44% unsecured lenders voted in favour. The company's 99.85% shareholders too voted in favour.

The voting results of the 16 other companies of the Kishore Biyani-led group are awaited as of 12.17 pm on Saturday.

Earlier on Friday, CNBC-TV18 had reported that, as per sources, prominent public sector banks (PSBs) were among those that voted against the deal. According to the sources, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, State Bank of India, and Bank of Baroda are among the lenders that have voted against the deal. The sources, who did not want to be named, added that the banks were against the deal due to a lack of assurance from RRVL on debt repayment and deal valuation after renegotiation.

CNBC-TV18 had on Thursday reported on banks viewing FRL's proposed deal with RRVL unfavourably due to lack of clarity on certain levels.

"We are not privy to negotiations between Future and Reliance, and after the store takeover, we want comfort from Reliance that it will settle dues,” a senior executive at a large public sector bank had told CNBC-TV18 earlier.

Another banker expressed reservations that the value of the deal may come down significantly as over 800 of Future Retail’s stores have already been taken over by Reliance, which leaves no clarity as to how RIL may value the deal.

The voting was conducted as per an order of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) issued on February 28 after the Supreme Court allowed Future Group companies to convene a meeting of shareholders, and secured and unsecured creditors to seek their approval for the deal.

Meanwhile, US e-commerce giant Amazon has been contesting the deal, and terming the meetings to secure approvals “illegal”.

Future Retail owes over Rs 17,000 crore to lenders including Bank of India, SBI, BoB, Union Bank, and Axis Bank.

After a series of defaults by Future Retail even after a one-time debt restructuring package was approved by lenders, Bank of India last week filed an insolvency petition against the company at the National Company Law Tribunal to recover dues.